Economic transactions include but are not limited to cash transactions, credit or debit card transactions, open account transactions, Internet based transactions, mail order transactions, electronic wire transfers or using prepaid cards or cards, tokens, barter, vouchers or coupons. They may further involve multi-vendor promotions, multi-level sales and distribution, auction, fundraising, or other methods of marketing.
For transactions involving cards, it is desirable to track information about how and where the card is used, the validity of the card, and to update the face value of the card contemporaneously or in real time. It is also desirable to accurately and efficiently distribute payment or revenue received from cards and transactions to persons and/or entities entitled to payment or compensation.
Various persons or entities, hereinafter referred to as “revenue distribution recipients” may be entitled to all or a portion of the payment or economic value received from a card-related transaction.
“Revenue distribution recipient” as used herein, is a term used to designate any individual or entity entitled to compensation on a fixed or percentage basis or based on any other form of recognition or formula for compensation when a payment for a card-related transaction is received. A revenue distribution recipient may include, but is not limited to, the following:                sales agents or persons or entities involved in the selling, transfer, or promotion of accounts or goods and services capable of being associated and tracked using the system described herein;        nonprofit entities, charitable organizations or other tax exempt and non-exempt entities and organizations to whom a fixed amount or a percentage of the payment may be donated pursuant to a rate plan;        management personnel;        one or more vendors;        representatives of vendors of goods and services, profit or nonprofit organizations and other public and private entities;        one or more customers;        administrative entities and personnel carrying out related or support functions;        a trade association or group of vendors having a common characteristic or affiliation; and        media and other service entities and individuals and entities associated with the promotion, publicity, publication, and representation of revenue distribution recipients, vendors, and users of the system described herein.        
“Card” as used herein, is any data or datum capable of identifying a particular customer or person or entity entitled to use a card as payment for goods and/or services. For example, a card could be a plastic card, metal card, paper card, a gift card, a rechargeable gift card, an electronically transmitted document such as an e-mail or file maintained on a computer or terminal, checking account information, a credit card number, other account number, a token, a numeric code, a magnetic code, a bar code, bio-informatics data, a code word, a digital signature, a sequence known to the purchaser or vendor, or other data capable of being associated with a commercial transaction, including combinations thereof. A card may be recognized by one or more vendors for a group of purposes of recognizing payment, receiving discounts, tracking account holder behavior and transactions, or for other purposes. The card may be made of paper, plastic, metal or any other material capable of transmitting printed, encoded or embedded information. The card may contain a magnetic strip or encoding capable of being read by devices configured to read credit card information, or other media capable of being encoded with such information. The card may access, use and/or alter information in a third party data base such as a credit card or bank database to facilitate, validate, initiate, or convey information about transactions using the card.
“Customer” as used herein, is an identified or unidentified individual or entity that receives and is the holder or bearer of card and is entitled to use one or more cards which may or may not be associated with a monetary amount, and which may or may not be used to track behavior and transactions of the card holder or user.
“Transaction” as used herein, is the exchange of value for goods and services, including the use of a card for goods and/or services, or any event which affects the face value of a card including payments which reflect the recharge value of the card.
“Recharge value” as used herein, is the updated face value of a card after a payment or transaction occurs which increases the face value of a previously issued card.
“Payment” as used herein, may include any form of currency, credit, electronic fund transfer, checking transaction, balance from a gift card, voucher or coupon or other transfer of value.
“Face value” as used herein, is a monetary or other amount associate to card which may be applied to the purchase of goods and/or services by vendors. The face value may be more, less or equal to the amount paid for the card, may be positive or negative and may also be a non-monetary value such as access rights. Upon the first use of a card, or upon other specified events and conditions, a card may have an updated face value which can be zero or any other monetary amount. An updated face value may reflect a transaction or other pre-designated event.
“Rate plan” as used herein is a distribution of revenue for card among one or more revenue distribution recipients, based upon policies, percentages and statistical or other information.
“Promotional campaign” as used herein is a strategic plan, which may be implemented using software, to associate a group of cards (herein referred to as a “tier”) with a rate plan. In addition to associating a particular tier of cards with a particular rate plan, the promotional campaign may further specify the duration that a particular rate plan may be in effect (a “cycle”). A cycle may be a specified time frame, or perpetual. The cards within a tier may have an aggregate dollar value. The cards within a tier, may, but are not required to be, issued by the same vendor. Furthermore, a single vendor may be associated with one or multiple tiers of cards, and the face values of individual cards within a tier may vary. For example, one vendor may be associated with a tier of cards having varying face amounts and an aggregate monetary value of X, and such tier may be associated with rate plan Y. In this example, when cards exceeding X are sold, rate plan Z may be in effect for a second tier of cards associated with a different rate plan.
“Redemption policy” as used herein is any policy, program, promotion, rule or convention which affects the economic value associated with a card. Examples of redemption policies include but are not limited to expiration dates, vendor policies associated with acceptance of cards and the value attributed to cards, issuing rewards, issuing reward points or the scoring or tracking of transactions associated with card to determine its ultimate economic or redemption value.
“Real time” means any time between the attempt and/or completion of an initial transaction using card and the attempt and/or completion of a subsequent transaction using card.
“Vendor” as the term is used herein is any seller of goods and services or provider of information or access which accepts card as a form of payment or consideration or recognizes a card for any other purpose. “Multiple vendors” as the term is used herein, means a plurality of vendors that have no commercial or economic affiliation with each other, but may also include vendors that do have a common economic affiliation, ownership or characteristic with each other.